Meeting to boost ties comes as India seeks reprieve from US oil sanctions related to war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have kicked off a daylong summit in the capital of India, where trade and Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine were set to loom large. Friday's summit is the first time Putin has visited India since the start of Russia's full-fledged war on Ukraine in 2022, and comes as India is seeking a reprieve from United States sanctions related to its purchase of Russian oil.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked his European allies for pledging to deploy troops to Ukraine as a post-war security guarantee. "Twenty-six countries have agreed to provide security guarantees to Ukraine. I think that today, for the first time in a long time, this is the first such serious concrete step," Zelenskyy said at a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.